Within businesses health and safety rules and regulations can differ depending on the size of the organisation, the number of staff members employed and the nature of the business. To ensure that all businesses follow the correct first aid and emergency fire procedures, then a risk assessment can be conducted.

A Risk Assessment is defining as a process of evaluating any potential risks that may be involved in a projected activity or undertaking. Meaning that in a work environment, you need to understand and foresee potential hazards or equipment may cause harm to employees. If your business doesn’t conduct a risk assessment, then it could be breaking current UK rules and regulations.

A risk assessment is a legal requirement for every employer, whether self-employed or not, to conduct an assessment regarding any health and safety risks that may arise. It is part of Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

Although there is no set way to conduct a risk assessment, it is suggested that you should include identifying the following:

Firstly, you need to identify what harm could potentially occur to staff members regarding risks and hazard within a business. This could include machinery risks, fire hazards, evacuation problems or risks to people’s health.

Once this has been established it then needs to be estimated who might be at risk. For example, machinery risks may only affect a handful of people who are qualified to work them; whereas evacuation problems may affect everyone within a building.

From evaluating these results, you should then decide on the appropriate controls and procedures that need to be in place in case a highlighted incident happens. This may include the addition of a fire extinguisher, an appropriately equipped first aid kit, or even sending individuals on training courses.

If your business employs five or more people, then you will then have to record and keep the results of your risk assessment, including what risk and hazards there are, why they might cause harm, who is as risk and what safety measures have been to put in place.

It is then a business’s responsibility to review and update their assessment regularly on ensure no new risks or hazards arise.

In order to easily provide risk assessments that are up to standard, you can find templates online, such as the HSE website, which will help you record your risks and hazards.

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